On Location: Culinary São Tomé: Food from the Island Gods
While looking for chocolate, a favorite meal at the ends of the Earth.
By Gray Shealy
The exotic isles of São Tomé e Principe comprise Africa’s second smallest nation (after the Seychelles), just off the coast of Gabon and home to the world’s best chocolate. Naturally, as a foodie who loves dessert, it was high on my bucket list. We took advantage of a crazy airfare sale a few years ago, and decided to splurge on a chocolate-seeking mission.
A stopover in the lovely city of Lisbon was a welcome break en-route to Central Africa. Indeed, given Portugal’s colonial history in Africa, TAP Air Portugal is one of the only airlines in the world to service the otherwise isolated São Tomé, with just 3 flights a week.
The namesake capital “city” and principal island of São Tomé is an aesthete’s bounty of beautiful things. For one, the people are stunning, from their striking forms to zinging fashion. Wild flowers and animals abound. And, oh the chocolate tasted of a flavour and depth from which I have never quite experienced. This nation’s perceived “inconsequential” nature has somehow distanced it from the otherwise globalized world. Most of the locals we met have never left their island, not even to travel to nearby Principe. As we awoke beneath the mosquito net the first morning we were there, we heard the cacophony of fishermen rowing their hand-carved canoes out to sea for the day. Indeed, this place is a world left behind: a trip back in time.
The closest point on land to the intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian just so happens to be in São Tomé, which, according to the European map-makers, is the “center” of the world. Of course, I had to go to this point, so we embarked on a six-hour-drive through winding, pot-holed roads, misty rain forests, past stilted villages, crescent beaches, and unearthen landscapes. The aptly-named “Cão Grande” mountain came out from behind the clouds for a moment to reveal its phallic self to us. From a tiny village at the road’s end, it was an hour ride in a motorized canoe to the country’s southernmost island. There, not only does the Equator cross a panoramic hilltop, but secret coves reveal beaches with waters so-fantastic-of-an-electric blue, one’s eyes almost burn in ecstasy. A swim in the bathtub-warm, Equatorial sea made our long journey a delightful sort of worldly baptism.
Journey to the "center" of the Earth: Cão Grande mountain; Ilheu das Rolas, the southernmost island.
While we were exhausted from our day-long trek to the Equator, we were taken for a late lunch at what I heard was a pretty good restaurant…”the best in São Tomé”…which honestly didn’t say much to me. My expectations for this country—aside from chocolate tastings—were at a low bar.
Was I wrong! The restaurant Roco São Joao das Angolares now ranks perhaps in the top meals of my life! And here I am walking in a WET bathing suit and sandy flip flops…as the 61-year-old gallant São Toméan chef himself greets us at the door of his 200 year old plantation house. (He is apparently a local celebrity, and dressed like it with a crisp white jacket and a gregarious poise).
An airy dining room opened to vistas of the rainforest and mountains beyond, with what has to be one of the most presentable open kitchens I’ve seen in a restaurant. Exotic ingredients were on display in bountiful piles, and staff clipped herbs growing off the sides of the railings. Baobab fruits, cacao pods, carambola, turmeric, jackfruit: It was a chorus of tropical earthly delights. When the sous-chef called us to the kitchen for a “tongue spa,” I knew we were in for something special. And so began our refined 11-course taste of São Tomé and Principe.
Mucumbli Hotel; Cacao pods growing in a plantation; São Tomé's capital; an idyllic beach in the island's south; Roco São João das Angolares and the famous chef on the steps; ingredients on display at the restaurant; Roco's rooms; locals on the beach; a chocolate tasting at Claudio Corallo.
The dishes:
- The pre-dinner “Tongue Spa”: Cacao seed fruit; chocolate bar, grated dried ginger, fresh whole red peppercorn.
- Mango and passion fruit; carmelized banana with coriander leaf and local herbal flower; ceviche of mahi, Chinese lime, papaya.
- Roasted marlin, fresh coconut, green mango, fresh pepper and ground coriander, avocado.
- My favorite: baked cassava with cinnamon, minced green olives and olive oil with vanilla seed; terrine of aubergine, fried fish, bell pepper, and aged Portuguese cheese; dried orange rolled in manioc.
- Peanut bonbon with super hot chili oil; pumpkin, cassava, fish mash.
- Banana and corn fritter; omelette with local herbs atune to coriander seeds; and a roasted tomato, grilled cheese, and dark chocolate (Simply awesome!)
- Soursop sorbet, a tangy local fruit, passion fruit, Chinese lime. WOW!!
- Tuna feijoada with rice and farofa. Served alongside hot local peppers in oil. And I mean a dab of it lit my mouth aflame!
- Farmers cheese, candied papaya, quince syrup.
- Red wine poached banana, banana chip, cinnamon, chocolate shavings, alongside superbly strong São Tomé Arabica coffee.
Syllogi's Intel:
EAT & STAY: Roco São Joao das Angolares
STAY: Mucumbli
EAT & SHOP: Claudio Corallo Cacao e Caffe
Photo Credit: Syllogi
Syllogi’s ‘On Location’ is a series of trip reports reflecting on our personal travels, as we research and experience the bounty the world has on offer.
